Does anyone care about you? Like truly care? I ask because I have spoken with a lot of hurting and broken people lately. Some of them outright tell me that they are struggling with self-esteem, productivity, and wondering if anyone cares about them. Some of them try to pretend like everything is okay but let me give you a little hint about hanging out with me….I CAN USUALLY SEE THROUGH IT. Now, some people even pay me to in essence care about them through life coaching. The crazy thing is that I would care no matter what, but when they pay money for it out of their own pocket they tend to be more prone to actually make life altering changes, but that is not why I am writing this post.

I am writing this almost as a continuation of my previous post. If you didn’t catch my drift the first time around I need you to know that the Lord has been stirring my heart filling me with joy, peace, excitement, and all kinds of other happy words as he has begun to show me some of the potential in the people around me. There is nothing I love more than seeing someone dream big, go after it, and then begin to dream even BIGGER. But I am beginning to see a pretty crucial pattern.

In order to actually have any type of success in going after these awesome dreams you HAVE to HAVE to HAVE to choose to surround yourself with the right people. Think about it, do you have some habits or tendencies that might contribute to you not always shining or getting the things that you want to get done done? Let me suggest something possibly offensive….If that is the case, then the people around you do not care about you. Why the HELL would they know you and not want to see you live up to your potential? Cause let me tell you something, we’ve all got more in us and I want someone to pull it out of me even if it means an uncomfortable conversation or two of them saying, “get off your ass and start pouring into all of the things you were meant to”. And if you are of the non-profanity speaking crowd you might need someone to tell you, “Seriously, dude (or dudette) pull yourself together, let’s work through your “stuff” and do all that it takes to get you ready to conquer your dreams”!

How do we do this? Seek out the people that are kicking butt at what they do and ask them for help. If I am in a room with tons of people I always find myself gravitating towards the people that I know are doing big things, or possibly doing smaller scale things but with lots of success and most importantly a positive attitude. The people who have a stinky attitude about all that they are doing in their life are the ones I would get as far away from as possible. Obviously they need love and a revelation about their own potential, but if you are not in the place to be that for them then walk away and find someone to help you get there yourself.

Go out of your way to spend time with people who will challenge you, push you, love you, encourage you, and listen to you. If you truly can’t think of anyone in your life who would be that to you then you need to pay someone to do it. Yeah, I know that is a weird concept, but find a life coach or someone that is going to help you become your best. It is worth it and as you work on stuff with them people will begin to see your transformation and friends will not be a problem.

Exercise: Make a list of people in your life who you think truly care about you. Be completely exhaustive. Think of everyone. Now narrow it down to the ones that you admire for what they are doing and accomplishing. Now find things in your week that take up your time and trade them out for contact with those people.

Example: Do you go get coffee every week with some friends or family who only talk negatively about everything? Instead contact one of the people on your list and set up a skype date if they don’t live close by. It is important, and if they are truly a quality person who qualifies to be on your list then they will probably go out of their way to find time to pour into you. IT IS WORTH IT!

No I am not writing a post about how much I loved to hear Amy Grant sing “Grown Up Christmas List” every year at her Christmas concert growing up although I am Amy G’s biggest fan. Duh. This may be one of the seemingly cheesiest posts I have ever written, but I hope that you can see where it is coming from which is some place deep down inside of me.

Christmas music at its finest!

Okay but seriously, this year for my birthday I got to thinking about what I wanted. “what do I want?, what do I REALLY REALLY WANT?” Well, of course there was the obvious material things that I wanted:

* Gift cards to restaurants (if you only knew how bad my obsession with food was

* a new pair of Toms ….which I am pretty sure are wrapped and under the tree thanks to my awesome hubbo wink wink

My birthday was December 3rd and I was beyond blessed with love, kind words, gifts (my #1 love language), food (my #2 love language), fun time, laughter, and just soo many good things. I mean, it was such a great day. I truly have amazing people in my life.

Now, switching gears a bit I began thinking about all of the people that have been in my life this past year and some of the conversations I was blessed to have. At that point I came up with a new list of what I wanted:

*Please don’t read this the wrong way because these things are all for me as well, there are just some patterns I have been noticing which caused me to realize how important having amazing friends is.

* I want my friends and colleagues to see all of their potential

* I want them to walk in confidence, knowing who they are and that they are a BIG DEAL ( you reading this right now are a BIG DEAL)

* I want people to begin to choose to surround themselves with the right people and relationships. I want them to distance themselves from negative people, and people who just drag them down.

* I want them to stop selling themselves short

* Stop dreaming too small

* Start filling their minds with positive thoughts and words

* Start going after BIIIIIG things

* Start asking for help when needed

* and sooo much more that has been going through my mind

Wow, as I write this my heart is just being overwhelmed with excitement about the things that God is up to. I have recently seen some people in my life begin to even just start to see some of the amazing potential they have in them and how their countenance has changed. They walk taller, smile more often, say things I have never heard them say. And I benefit from all of this. When others around you begin to line themselves up with the awesome and amazing truths of the Father they begin to challenge and push me/you to do the same. I need this. People, I need you to be your best you so you can help me be my best you. I mean, I get it this sounds sooo crazy, silly, girly, mushy, etc but if you could just see what I am dreaming you would be super excited too! Lets do it people.

what would be on your grown up Christmas list? ….no more lives torn apart? that wars would never start? Okay, but seriously.

This week is a week of new beginnings. James and I packed up our 2 bedroom apartment and moved to a 3 bedroom just a few miles away. The best bonus of our new location is that it is less than a mile from Whole Foods! Moving has made me sooo tired. School starts tomorrow so James and I have been frantically trying to bring loads from the old apartment to the new apartment and unpack things so that we can get as much done before homework becomes a distraction. The hardest part has been doing it all with two energetic toddlers playing at our feet. Tonight for dinner I made another yummy casserole that I will try and blog sometime this week.

Wanna see some pics from the moving process? I thought so.

Praise the Lord for amazing friends who volunteered time to help us move.

Tiago helping our friend Josh build his crib.

How many men does it take to build a crib?

Jude gave Mike a hand putting out dining table together.Today we welcomed our first special guest on her way back to Nashville. Tiago needed a bit of help getting his boogie on, so we encourage him with some moves of our own. Naturally.

Sorry it has been so long. I always have intentions of blogging while we are on a break from school and it just does not happen. We had a great break. We stayed in Atlanta and just kind of relaxed for a week before going to spend time with friends and family in Nashville for nine days. We just got back to Atlanta yesterday and it is time to get back in the swing of things. The theme of this season is “NEWNESS”. The boys both moved up into new classes at school today ( tear.) We are moving into a new apartment on Wednesday and will be getting a new roomie who will live with us for a few months. We also start our new quarter of school on Monday. There are a lot of fresh things going on and it is exciting. Kind of hard to believe that we have been here for a year already.

We spent the 4th with my family this year and my mommy made a super yummy casserole with veggies from her garden. She sent me home with tons of garden fresh goodies so today I made her zucchini/squash casserole but chose to one up her on the healthiness of it. Hers was a typical southern casserole. The kind where many people think they are eating something healthy because it has squash in it, but in all reality it is not very nutritious at all because the poor veggies are stripped of their nutrients and drowned in a vat of pasteurized dairy in the form of cream, cheese, and who knows what else. Here is what I did:

* chop 2 serrano peppers (also from my mom’s garden) and half of one large red bell pepper and add them to the mix

* toast 2 slices of Ezekiel bread then crumble them into the bowl

* mix in two eggs

* add some seasoning. I use Bragg’s Sprinkles + a little sea salt and pepper

*****Then I added some mushrooms and duh duh duh….KALE just to piss off the people who get squeamish at the sight of healthy things. ***** You know the people who are all…” Ugh, you put kale in your smoothie. I bet that is sooo disgusting. I make mine with strawberries, sugar, milk, etc etc etc and it tastes so good.” Whatevs.

* anyways, back on track. Then I tossed in about a half a cup of almond cheddar

* then poured about a half a cup of almond milk

* mix it all up and pour the mixture into a greased pan

* sprinkle a bit more cheese on top

* throw in oven for 30 minutes and DONE!

This was seriously one of the best things I have made in my kitchen in a while. I served it with a chicken breast and side salad. James and I both ate every single bit. Excited for leftovers tomorrow!

I am quite blessed and honored to know the two most amazing daddy’s on the earth. One of them, my dad Sam, raised me up to be the woman I am today. The other, my sweet husband James, has only been doing the whole daddy thing for two years, but I guarantee you that he ranks up there with the best of the best.

My precious dad did not have the greatest example of a father. When my dad was thirteen his father left to go to the grocery store and he never came back. His father had chosen to abandon my dad, his mom, and his sister. When I was in elementary school my dad was going on a business trip to the town that he last knew his father had been. He started making calls to see if he could meet with him, and found out that he had passed away a while before that. Needless to say, my dad did not have someone there for him through highschool to cheer him on when he played football and baseball. But, let me tell you something. He never missed one of my brother’s baseball games or one of my swim meets. He would sometimes even reschedule his business meetings so that he could come and cheer us on. My dad is the nicest man on earth who has never met a stranger. He and my mother together have taken in many of my brother’s friends when they needed places to stay while attending MTSU. Dad has been like a second father to so many of me and my brother’s friends. He loves to learn about people’s lives and then he is their biggest supporter. I’m so blessed to have such an amazing example of love, hard work, support, faith, kindness, generosity, creativity, and humility. Not only has he been the best daddy ever, but he is also a rockstar grand dad. The boys call him either Big Sam or Captain Sam. He even changes dirty diapers. Amazing.

And James, I mean what can I say? The guy steals the show as the number one parent in this household. James is one of the busiest, most intelligent, hardest working people on the face of the planet yet finds a way to spend as much time as he possibly can with Jude and Tiago. I know for a fact that the reason he is doing all of those things, is for us and especially the boys. I have never in my life seen a child love their daddy as much as Tiago Lucas Beuerlein loves James and I think that there can be no greater way to measure what an amazing daddy he is. He also changes diapers, plays drums and guitar with them, walks around like a gorilla on all fours, and so much more. This is the kind of dad who on his day off from school when his wife is sick in bed could take the boys to daycare but instead chooses to keep them home and play with them all day long knowing that I wouldn’t be able to help at all. James always knows the right thing to say, he never loses his temper, teaches the boys how to do things instead of just doing it for them, and makes sure to lay hands and pray over each of them every night before bed. This man cried the first time he ever had to discipline Tiago because he didn’t know what it felt like to have to be stern with our child. I am a lucky lucky duck. Oh and did I mention that he does all of his awesome fathering in Spanish? Yeah. Super hero.

I could say sooo much more about both of these men, but I will leave it at that for now.

So, as you all know, I LOVE food. Really really love food. Indian food happens to hold a special place in my heart and tummy. When I lived in Fiji we ate Indian food all the time. Many people don’t know that about 40% of the population of Fiji is Indian. There is yummy Indian food everywhere. I had never really had it before and instantly fell in love. One of my favorite flavors is that of a sauce many people make out of masala.

This weekend James and I took the boys to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market. We have been there a bunch of times since living in Atlanta but one of the main items that we buy there is coconut oil. They have the best/cheapest coconut oil that we have been able to find anywhere. We searched all over the internet and for about a year even ordered it off of Amazon. Until we found it at Dekalb. You get a HUGE tub of extra virgin coconut oil for $7.99. Holla! This time around we bought 7 of them so we could take some to friends when we go back to TN to visit in a week or so.

Also got some extra spices this time around because they are seriously so cheap. I got some masala spice and decided to try my hand at making the sauce myself. In the kitchen last night I began my experiment not knowing what to expect. I don’t often look up recipes of things I am trying to make. If I know what it is supposed to taste like and know the basic ingredients I typically just wing it. So that is exactly what I did. Knowing that the sauce that I have had in restaurants has a cream base I decided to use coconut milk as well as a splash of almond milk. Most people probably use heavy cream but lets face it, folks. It may taste good but…that is not on the road to health. So with a little coconut/almond milk mix in the pan I added about 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, followed by two cloves of garlic that I pressed. Then I adde about one and a quarter teaspoons of the masala spice and a little bit of paprika. I also added about a teaspoon of coconut flour to thicken it a more. I also added a touch of sea salt and pepper. Then I cooked some veggies and potatoes. I put the sauce over a mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and peas. Oh, and I shredded a touch of raw cheese on top to make it a bit creamier. It was soooo good. James devoured it and told me I had to make it again soon. It did not taste exactly like it does in the restaurants, but it definitely worked! Do you guys have any Indian dishes that you have perfected? What are the recipes?

Oh, and here are some fin shots of the boys from the last week or so. Now that James and I are out of school for a few weeks we have been having some super fun time with the monkeys. What a blessing they are.

This little man’s favorite thing is to spin the tires on my bike. He seriously will stand there all day spinning them. Two nights ago I turned around and he had climbed his little butt onto the rocking horse to spin the tire from a new spot!

Don’t let his serious face fool you, he is quite the swimmer. They both hate getting out of the pool.

Like always I had my husband do the dirty work. I want everyone to win so I hate being the one to draw the name out of the jar. I loved reading everyone’s goals and implementation strategies. You can do it! If you were to ever need help staying on target to reach your goal feel free to contact me for some life coaching, or I could put you in touch with some other amazing coaches that I know!

The winner of the Max T3 dvd set is:

With A Freshness Reader: HAKEEM!

I will be getting in touch with you in the next day or so to see how to get that to you! Enjoy!